A game of dodgeball during an eighth-grade PE class has escalated into a court case after a 13-year-old Arizona boy was charged with misdemeanor assault.

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Abel Schipper is accused of targeting his ex-girlfriend with dodgeballs alongside two other boys during a gym class at Mayer High School in Yavapai County.

The incident took place in December 2025 and ultimately resulted in the girl being hospitalised, according to reports.

Abel and his family, however, dispute the suggestion that he intended to hurt her and argue that what happened occurred as part of a dodgeball game.

“We threw around the dodgeballs and then I throw it at her. I hit her,” Abel told AZFamily. “One of the kids missed, the other kid also hit.”

Two days after the incident, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office received information from a Banner Health social worker concerning what had happened.

According to the police report, the social worker said the three boys “relentlessly assaulted her with dodgeballs when she came out of the bathroom”.

The police report also described photographs taken by her mother showing two blue and purple bruises, said to be around the size of softballs, on her upper right rib cage and lower right abdomen.

Abel said he had not expected the balls involved to cause that level of injury.

“I didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt. And these are small ones too. So you can squeeze them and like they compress and stuff,” he said.

A sheriff’s deputy subsequently interviewed the children involved.

All three boys said they had not intended to hurt the girl.

During his interview with the deputy, however, Abel acknowledged focusing some of his attention on her.

“I’m not going to lie. I did target her a little bit,” he said.

Abel has since argued that selecting somebody to throw the ball at is inherent to dodgeball.

“Obviously I’m going to have to target somebody for dodgeball. It’s dodgeball. You have to choose somebody, throw the ball, then try to get them out,” he said. “I didn’t want to hurt her at all.”

Another element of the case is the previous relationship between Abel and the girl.

Abel identified the alleged victim as his ex-girlfriend and described their relationship at the time of the incident as neither particularly good nor particularly bad.

“I wouldn’t say we were on good terms, but I also wouldn’t say we were on bad terms. She used to hit me a lot and then she kind of just broke it off after that,” he said.

His mother, Cecily Schipper, has strongly disputed the decision to pursue an assault charge against her son.

According to Cecily, she received no communication from Mayer High School about the incident at the time, while Abel was not disciplined by the school.

She also said she did not know that a sheriff’s deputy had interviewed her son on school grounds.

It was only months later, she said, that a letter arrived from the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center informing her that Abel was facing a misdemeanor assault charge.

For Cecily, taking what happened during a PE lesson into the juvenile justice system is difficult to understand.

“It is absolutely ridiculous. This is a game that every kid in the nation plays at some point in their life,” she said. “They’re considering the dodgeball a weapon and that he knowingly or willingly, recklessly harmed this girl just playing dodgeball in PE.”

The circumstances surrounding the relationship between Abel and his ex-girlfriend have also become part of his family’s argument.

Cecily said there were no hard feelings between the pair before or after the incident. She claims she has messages showing the girl continued communicating with the family after what happened in December.

“I have text messages from her asking for rides home after this incident happened in December. So it was, it’s just strange. And I was friends with her mom as well,” she said.

At the same time, Cecily acknowledged that her son should face consequences if his behaviour crossed a line, while maintaining that she believes the criminal case against him is unfair.

“If it was a situation where, boys will be boys, then he deserves punishment for that,” Cecily said. “But I also think that, I don’t agree with victim blaming, but I think my son is also getting injustice here when it comes to the court situation.”

The case therefore centres on sharply different interpretations of what happened during that gym class.

A judge is scheduled to hear the case on August 17.

According to the Schipper family, two of the three boys involved in the incident are expected to appear to defend themselves.

It remains unclear from the supplied reports whether the third boy has also been charged.

Featured image credit: Google Maps/YouTube/Arizona Family (screenshots)